CHERRY HILL, N.J. - With an 11th-place finish on the Cooper River this weekend, the Penn heavyweight varsity eight posted its best finish at the IRA Championships in more than a decade. The second varsity finished 12th overall and the freshman boat finished as the second runner-up in the third final.

On a clear morning, the varsity eight was one of three Penn boats to compete in a Petite Final on Saturday and it may have been the day's most exciting race. All six boats were seperated by less than five seconds. The Quakers, who stopped the clock at 5:40.445, edged Ivy rival Yale by less than a second for fifth-place.

That effort earned the Red and Blue an 11th-place finish overall at the 2012 IRA's - the program's best finish in 11 years. The Quakers were also just two seconds away from placing in the Top 10 for the first time since a ninth-place showing in 2001.

The second varsity had similar success over the weekend. That boat also earned its way into a Petite Final and finished sixth on Saturday with a time of 5:55.523. That capped the Quakers' three-day efforts with an encouraging 12th-place finish overall.

Competing in the Third Final, Penn's freshman boat placed third. Syracuse and Stanford held an open water lead over the rest of the field, but Penn, in third, also held a similar margin over the remaining boats. Those top boats were the only three to break the six-minute barrier. Penn was three seconds ahead of Drexel with a finish of 5:59.422.

Penn also finished ahead of Drexel in the Petite Final of the Open Fours. The Quakers held a comfortable lead over their Philadelphia counterparts and finished fifth in the race with a time of 6:44.607.